Half-marathon Race Report

First of all I want to thank everyone who wrote me encouraging comments on my last post. No matter how much the Loop changes, the users are always super supportive and encouraging, and I love that so much. So thanks, you guys!

First of all, the finish time: 2:33:37. This was eleven minutes slower than I finished in the same race last year. While that was disappointing, it wasn't unexpected. My training runs of 9 and 10 miles had taken me over two hours to finish. For whatever reason, I've been slower this year. When I first started the training plan, I thought it was because I was just so tired at the end of the school year. Then the first couple of weeks of summer, we were in Montana on vacation. I figured the runs were slower because of the dramatic increase in elevation and because they involved so much more uphill than what I'm used to running around home. Then the last few weeks of training, I was really hoping things would start to feel better, but they just didn't. Every run felt hard, even short 3 milers. I was getting good sleep, eating well (and definitely enough- I've gained 5 pounds since the beginning of training), and things just never came together for me.

But anyway, on to the race itself. The first mile went by super quickly. I think it was about 11 minutes. I remember wishing they could all feel so "easy," at the same time, I could already feel my quads working. They weren't exactly sore, but they were letting me know that this was taking some effort.

After the first mile, I tried to stick to a pattern of run 4 minutes, walk 1 minute. In the past, I have typically done run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute, but I had found that I just couldn't maintain that much running on my long runs, and I would end up walking a lot during the last few miles. It ended up being the right amount of walking and running for me, I don't think I could have added in any more running than what I did.

I took a GU at 4 miles, and I walked about 3 minutes while doing so, then I tried running what would have been 6 minutes until the next "scheduled" walking break, but I immediately felt myself getting tired. I don't know if it was mental or if I was actually getting tired out, but I didn't want to exhaust myself so early in the race, so I walked early, walked for a minute, and then started running again. I gradually got back onto the 4/1 pattern, running from minutes 0-4, then 5-9. This is the easiest for me to keep track of, and then I don't accidentally walk for too long.

There was an aid station with porta-potties around mile 5. I stopped to pee and then tried to get going again. It took awhile to get my legs back into the groove, but eventually I felt okay again. There was never a point when things felt "easy" and I guess they shouldn't during a race. I always felt like I was pushing it just a little, and the walk breaks were just long enough for me to start to feel all right, and then it was time to run again.

I took a bite of Lara Bar somewhere between miles 7 and 8. I feel like GU by itself isn't quite enough sometimes. Then I took another GU at mile 8. It went down fine, but it didn't give me any kind of "boost" like i was hoping it would. I just tried to keep plugging along.

At this point a few people passed me, but it was never a smooth process. They would pass me during a walking break, and then I would pass them when I started to run again. I kind of "leap-frogged" with at least a couple of different runners before they ultimately passed me. I wasn't trying to make life difficult for them, I was just trying to stick to my pattern and my pace. And I was glad when ultimately they got ahead of me and we could stop playing leap frog.

I ate the rest of my Lara Bar at mile 11. I'd been planning to do another GU, but the bar was more satisfying. I tried not to walk between miles 11 and the end, but I ended up having to walk for about a minute with a half-mile left in the race. Then I was able to finish the race running. I didn't completely empty my tank, but I was really pretty close.

My husband finished about one minute before me. So I met up with him. We changed our clothes and then waited for my friend to finish. My friend is a co-worker, and she has lost over 100 pounds through diet and exercise over the last two years. She run/walks, and she finished around 3 hours 15 minutes. I am SUPER proud of her. Doing the race was worth it just to be there to see her finish, even though it wasn't the best race experience for me.

After the race, we went out to lunch together, and then my husband and I went home to take a nap. We each did a quick "ice" bath (not really with ice, just cold water) and then fell asleep for two hours. I probably could have slept all night, but we had to go to my aunt's house to pick up our kids. My twins (now age 3) had spent the night with her so we could do the race. I love being a parent, but racing (and training) was definitely easier when I only had myself to worry about.

When I picked them up, I was feeling incredibly sore. Possibly the only time I was MORE sore was after I completed my (one and only) full marathon. So even though my time this year was slower, I was way more sore than I was after finishing last year. Fortunately when I woke up Sunday morning, much of the soreness was gone. So at least it didn't last.

Now I'm trying to decide what to do next. During training, I've had some foot/heel pain which I'm afraid might be the start of plantar fasciitis. I'm going to take it easy this week and then see how my foot feels. I obviously can't go right back into hard training if I've got an injury. I would really like to lose the 5 pounds I accrued during training and ideally 5 more, so I may have to focus on other areas of fitness for awhile.

Thanks so much if you've read this far, and thanks to everyone who has been encouraging along the way. I hope you all had an awesome running weekend!

The race may not have been perfect, but is sounds like you still did very well. If you can figure out the fatigue thing, and make sure that you aren't injured you should be able to get back to your old paces quickly!

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